U.S. and the World
Supreme Court Says U.S. Can Decide if Babies Born in Jerusalem Can List Israel as Their Birthplace
A nine-year-old boy might wind up forcing the U.S. government to do something it has long avoided: Officially declare whether Jerusalem is part of Israel.
Because Israel and Jordan have long fought over the divided city, the U.S. has had a pol... read more
Mali Coup Leader Who Overthrew Elected Government was Trained in U.S.
Captain Amadou Haya Sanogo, leader of the coup that overthrew Mali’s government last week, received military training in the United States. The Central African nation was due to hold presidential elections on April 29.
U.S. officials acknowled... read more
Canadian Government Puts Brakes on Agreed Transfer of Citizen from Guantánamo
Canada’s government may be having second thoughts about allowing former al-Qaeda child soldier Omar Khadr back into the country.
Khadr agreed to a plea with U.S. military officials that required him to provide information on other terrorism su... read more
Pressure from Weapons Industry Leads to Renewed Military Aid to Egypt
Election year pressure from the U.S. weapons industry succeeded last week in persuading Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to release $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt by using her authority under a new law to waive a requirement that she cert... read more
Global Warming Has Mining Companies Turning Their Attention to Greenland
With its ice sheet slowly receding because of global warming, Greenland has become popular with mining companies seeking new stores of valuable minerals.
Beneath the thinning glaciers are lodes of uranium, zinc, iron ore, copper and gold, as w... read more
World’s Biggest Employer…U.S. Defense Department
It might seem like the title of biggest employer in the world would go to the ubiquitous Walmart or McDonald’s. But, in fact, the honor belongs not with a company but a government agency: the U.S. Department of Defense.
With 3.2 million on its... read more
Brazil Refuses to Allow 17 American Executives to Leave Country over Oil Spill
Chevron and another American company are under attack from the government of Brazil after allowing an oil leak from an offshore well.
Seventeen executives from Chevron and oil platform operator Transocean face criminal charges for an oil disch... read more
Why are Howard Dean and Rudy Giuliani Lobbying for a Terrorist Group?
The answer to the question in the headline, of course, is money, and quite a lot of it. Although exact amounts are unknown, the Iranian dissident group Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) (People’s Mujahedin of Iran)–which the State Department has designated ... read more
Obama Administration Deeply Involved in Criminal Cases in Yemen
Two men languishing in Yemeni prisons–one of them an American citizen–have the Obama Administration to thank for their continued incarceration on what critics say are dubious charges related to the so-called war on terror. Now the American, Sharif... read more
Romney’s Bain Capital Helps Chinese Dictators Monitor Dissidents
Bain Capital, the private equity firm that Mitt Romney helped found, is playing a major role in China’s effort to spy on its citizens.
Uniview Technologies, a Chinese company owned by Bain, has provided surveillance cameras to the government f... read more
U.S. General: Killing Mexican Drug Lords Doesn’t Really Reduce Crime or Violence
Despite numerous arrests and killings of cartel leaders, Mexico’s “decapitation” strategy for stopping the drug trade is not working, says a top American general.
General Charles H. Jacoby Jr., commander of U.S. Northern Command, told a Senate... read more
Obama Trade Advisor Linked to Illegal Gold Deals in Congo
A supporter of President Barack Obama who serves as a trade adviser has been accused by the United Nations of buying millions of dollars in gold from a wanted African warlord.
Kase Lawal, a Nigerian-born oil tycoon who serves as chairman and c... read more
$900 Million Later, International Criminal Court Gets Its First Conviction
Ten years after being established and almost $1 billion in costs, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has made its first conviction, much to the delight of human rights advocates.
But critics contend the ICC is too costly and delivers too l... read more
Drug Companies Still Outsourcing Dangerous Trials to Poor Nations
Despite getting into trouble in Africa, U.S. drug manufacturers are still going overseas, with increasing frequency, to test new medicines and take advantage of poor economic conditions…and lax regulation legal responsibility should anything go wr... read more
Japanese Whaling Haul Thwarted by Anti-Whaling Activists
Environmental activists combing the Pacific Ocean for Japan’s whaling fleet managed to locate it and disrupt its work, forcing the whalers to give up before reaching their quotas.
After catching up to the fleet, the group Sea Shepherd threw st... read more
Rush Limbaugh Supported Joseph Kony…Really
Rush Limbaugh provoked controversy for his rant in which he called law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute” because she advocated requiring private insurance plans to cover contraception. But last October Limbaugh went even farther ove... read more